Upon the day and at the time appointed for the ministration of the Holy Communion, the priest that shall execute the holy ministry, shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say, a white alb, plain, with a vestment or cope. And where there be many priests or deacons, there so many shall be ready to help the priest in the ministration, as shall be requisite; and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for the ministry, that is to say, albes with tunicles."d

But even these ministerial ornaments were offensive to some of the early Reformers, who considered them as idolatrous, and savouring of Popery, and therefore in the revision of the Liturgy, made in the fifth year of the reign of Edward the Sixth, the two rubrics in the first Common Prayer Book relating to the priestly habits were left out, and the following one substituted in their stead:

"" And here it is to be noted that the minister at the time of the Communion, and at all other times in his ministration, shall use neither alb, vestment, or cope; but being archbishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochette; and being a priest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice only." e

However, in the seventh year of the reign of Elizabeth it was again enjoined that the minister, in time of his ministration, should use such ornaments as were in use in the second year of the reign of Edward the Sixth, namely, a surplice in the ordinary ministration, and a cope in the time of ministration of the Holy Communion.

The alb, cope, and tunicle, as also the bishop's pastoral staff, have long fallen into disuse, but the surplice has ever since been worn by the minister, who is likewise entitled to

d Wheatly's Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, p. 100.

e Ibid.

wear his proper hood, the use of which is now by the colour and fashion to denote the degree of the person wearing it, and it is worn falling back, and hanging from the neck by the lower end.

Towards the close of this century bishops appear in the chimere, an upper robe of black silk, to which the white lawn sleeves were attached; round the neck was a ruff, and the head was covered with a close coif, or cap of black silk, velvet, or satin.

The effigy in Canterbury Cathedral of Archbishop Warham, who died in 1532, represents that prelate in his pontifical vestments, with the crozier under his right arm, and his hands are joined in prayer: the cushion on which the head reposes is supported on each side by an angel; and at the feet are the effigies of two priests kneeling, each holding an open missal.

In the Church of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, is the monumental effigy of John Harman, Bishop of Exeter, who died in 1555, and was buried at that place. He is represented in his episcopal vestments, as worn previous to the Reformation, and with the mitre and pastoral crook.

The early episcopal habit of the Reformed church is represented in the recumbent effigy in Croydon Church, Surrey, of Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1583.

The inlaid brass effigy in St. Benedict's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, of Dr. William Bill, first Dean of Westminster, who died in 1561, represents him as habited in his gown, or surplice, and hood.f

Of monumental sculpture after the Reformation-for it is then that a broad line of demarcation may be drawn-it

f Wheatly's "Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer," and Palmer's "Origines Liturgicæ," may be referred to as containing much information on the vestments worn by the ministers of the Church of England.

is impossible to speak in terms of praise. Perhaps, indeed, at no period subsequent to the twelfth century were the true principles of taste in composition less understood or acted upon; and yet this was the era when the schools of art in Italy were in their most flourishing condition.

But a certain degree of action is requisite to dispose of drapery with effect; and the armour in which effigies were represented was heavy and inelegant in outline, and the robes or dress, where armour was not worn, were seldom disposed happily, or with freedom. Nor did the female costume, stiff and formal, afford much scope for the artist to evince his taste in the arrangement of the folds: the attitudes in which the effigies were sculptured were much constrained, though they were not always recumbent; and the sepulchral brasses betoken likewise a poverty in the knowledge of design, as compared with those of former ages. In lieu of tasteful compositions, we have the tawdry concomitants of painting and gilding in profusion, and nondescript ornament added to the pomp of heraldic display. From this infinite variety of individual detail, a whole was the result, sufficiently meretricious to dazzle for a time the eyes of the multitude, though neither chaste in principle, or calculated for the study of a future age.

The low state to which the art of sculpture in this country was reduced during the latter part of this century, may in a great degree be attributed to the operation of that revolution which had just been accomplished, for the discountenance thereby thrown on sculptures of a religious description, against which an outcry had been raised, and the as yet incipient designs introduced in uncouth and partial imitations of the foreign schools of art, may be traced in the monumental sculpture and architecture of the era immediately succeeding that event; and such were the chief

causes of the change which then took place in the form, composition, and decorative embellishment of tombs.

We have to regret the destruction, during the progress of the Reformation, of many monuments of ancient art: the continuance of such a system was prevented by Elizabeth, but not before the baneful effects were severely felt. It would have been well if iconoclastic zeal, so far at least as monumental sculpture was concerned, had never again been roused.

A. D. 1591.

Monument in Churchover Church, Warwickshire, of Charles Dixwell, Esq. and Abigail his wife, and their children. Erected A. D. 1641.

OF SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS DURING THE

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

So quickly and completely had that peculiar style arising from the continental or Italian, superseded the old English mode in the general outline and appearance of monumental composition, that at the dawn of the seventeenth century, the many tasteful and interesting memorials of ancient art which enriched the Gothic structures of the middle ages, were, as exemplars, altogether discarded, in the rage for